We are HERE in Thailand!

We are finally here.  WOW.

It doesn't really feel like the time to blog. There is nothing pressing on my heart to write.  But then again, I think I need to record my first sentiments being a missionary family.

Before I begin, I have to say that I feel like God is doing some kind of mini-revival in my heart. We have spent the last month with missionaries, hearing their stories of God's faithfulness. So I think my heart has been revived as far as mission in general, in prayer and time in the Word (not as obligation, but of movement in my heart). There is a revival to pray for neighbors, to study the Word and learn language so that I can communicate His message. It's an exciting time.

First week as a family in Thailand
We arrived here about a week ago. After about 3.5 weeks in Singapore at OMF's IHQ (International Headquarters), we flew in to Bangkok.  We stayed in the OMF Bangkok Guest home and it was a great time. I remembered the IMB's guest home in Bangkok and it was located more in the city. OMF's home is outside the city in a regular neighborhood.  That was quite different from what I expected. The home was quiet though, with a workout room and enclosed play area.  It will be a great getaway place for us in the future.

Now we are in Lopburi where we will do our language/cultural studies.  We were in the city of Lopburi in the Lopburi Province. It feels like a "big city" especially since all we have at the time being is bikes for transportation! I have not figured out how to use the song taows yet (public transportation).  I think my first night in Lopburi was challenging for me. I think I was disappointed with the home that we were placed in (I was comparing with another friend's house - comparison can be such an ugly thing).  NOW, however, I am loving the house. It feels very clean, which is very important to me.  The house is tricky in some ways. It is like a town house, very skinny but 3 floors high. The stairs are scary for small kids.  We set up a room for Moriah but it is more of a play room, she will sleep in our room. Being new in a country and then being on different levels of a house with bad stairs (she could easily fall through them and it  could be fatal) is just not a good idea. However, the aircon in her room is not working, so we might switch her rooms.   The only other time I felt overwhelmed was after shopping at Big C, it's like a big Walmart.  The day before we had been gone from probably 9am to 9pm and I was so tired.  So shopping was tiring. The next morning after shopping we had to be at Shiloh (headquarters for OMF Lopburi / daycare center) by 7:45 in the morning.  Jason and I were exhausted! I was very grouchy.

Now it's Saturday afternoon. We had more orientation this morning (Saturday and Sunday are considered work days for us, Monday is our day off).  Our first week here we are allowed to skip out on church. This will be good for us so we can catch up on some sleep.  So I am excited to get everything out of the suitcase (one more to go- my suitcase!) and tidied up. We also want to figure out our way around Lopburi . The driving is so crazy so it is a little scary riding around with Moriah on the back of Jason's bike!

I've remembered a lot of my Thai.  Our Thai friend Nam told me that I speak chat (clearly) so that is encouraging because I did not learn Thai by studying the tones. I learned only to speak in Isaan but I learned by mimicking how they said the word. Now I will be learning the language formally with the tones. 

We are so blessed to be here. Our leaders here, Rene and Susanna (Swiss couple) are amazing and have helped us out with so much. We have so much support here, that is very important! I feel that OMF is very very good at supporting their members.  This feels so essential as it's our first term together as a family in Thailand.

I feel like there is still so much more to do, but I am trying to go one day at a time. I used to get very very overwhelmed by each day's tasks. I've let a lot of this go, but still have the tendency to want to do EVERYTHING and not enjoy each day as it comes and enjoy the people in it. So I just have to trust that little by little, all will get done. God is so good at teaching us to rest in Him and to let go of the small things. It's just laundry. It's just updating records. It's just email.  It will get done in time.

Love in Christ,
Jenn